Matt Barnes

Rosters expand on Monday to allow for the big league clubs to take a look at 15 more players during the last month of the season. All the mainstream experts say to pick up the top prospects who will get to see playing time for the last month to boost your roster. But I’m so bitter today that I can’t recommend doing anything like that if you’re in a points league. You see, I woke up early and picked out just the perfect outfit, but not one person has mistaken me for homeless. I hate people. And I hate prospect call ups (for points leagues). They’re so new and trendy and just not sustainable enough for me. In fact, even my moustache hates them. I’m so heated over the matter that all 12 handlebars I waxed into it are now pointing down. I used Burt’s Bees and now I can breathe like Brian Wilson on the mound. Sinuses are so clear!

The Run DownThis Boston farm is exceptionally strong from a fantasy perspective, but it’s a different brand of strength from the top-of-the-league systems that we’ve recently discussed. Orgs like the Cubs, Twins, Astros, and Pirates all feature a grouping of extreme high-impact prospects at the top of their ranks, whereas Boston’s main attraction is in its fantasy-relevant depth. Excluding Xander Bogaerts from the conversation, there aren’t any sure-fire top 50 prospects in this group (although Garin Cecchini is certainly in the T50 conversation), but even so, it’d be difficult to find another farm as strong as Boston is from prospects #5 through #10. Everyone here can be owned comfortably in dynasty formats, and that’s a rarity among these preseason top 10’s.

The Arizona Fall League has announced its preliminary rosters, and as usual, this year’s AFL is loaded with high impact talent. Offensive headliners include Byron Buxton, Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, and Jorge Soler. On the pitching side of things, we’ve got Kyle Crick, Alex Meyer, Andrew Heaney, and Marcus Stroman. I’m leaving out plenty of other notable prospects, too. These rosters are always a welcome relief for us prospect enthusiasts who fear the onset of the withdrawal symptoms that inevitably come with the baseball off-season. The AFL should keep the nervous twitching and general malaise at bay, if only for a little while.

The Run DownWith impact talent at nearly every level of the farm, this is a deep system, and a good one. Xander Bogaerts, a top-10 overall prospect, headlines the group and will arrive within the next year-and-a-half as a big time fantasy asset. Behind him, Boston features a great mix of high-ceiling guys and high-floor guys, making this system not only high-impact, but rather safe as well. The Red Sox might be another year or so away from contending again in the crazy-competitive AL East, but the club has done a quality job of trimming some fat, and setting itself up for long-term success in the process.

The fantasy baseball world waits impatiently for the arrivals of Anthony Rizzo and Wil Myers. Some owners have been stashing one or the other on their rosters for months now, as folks like me keep spewing lines like “arrival is imminent” — whatever that means. Please, blog, may I have some more?